A detergent dispenser holds the detergent and the rinse aid, and controls when they enter the dishwasher during the cycle.

The door is spring-loaded and can become damaged - it can become stuck either in the open or the closed position, or the mechanism which controls it can fail. Now the spring and the door are available as separate spare parts, but I'm going to show you how to replace the whole thing.

Safety first: Do make sure that your dishwasher is switched off at the wall before you get to work. In a built-in unit like this, there should be a switch in the general area of the dishwasher. It could be inside a cupboard or just up above. Do make sure it's switched off.

The first thing I need to do is remove the outer wooden panel from the dishwasher. To do this, I'm going to need to remove all these screws which run along the outside of the door panel and I'll need a Torx head screwdriver for that. You can buy a Torx set on the eSpares website - I'm going to use to Torx bit on the end of a driver.

Now, once you've removed all of the screws, you can just separate the two parts of the door from each other and then we can remove the outer wooden panel. Right now, we just need to push the old detergent dispenser through the door, so I'm going to remove this connection block and put it to one side. Now there are clips holding the dispenser in place running along either side, so you will need to work your way around and unclip them. If they are a bit tight, you can use a flat-head screwdriver. There we go.

Before you put the new dispenser in, run some fairy liquid around the seal because it will be a bit tight as it's brand new. So once you've done that, you can then start placing the dispenser into the door. Once you're sure the new dispenser is securely in position, you just put the connection block back in and then you just need to put the outer panel back on the dishwasher and you're all done.

And that's how easy it is to replace the detergent dispenser in a built-in dishwasher. Detergent dispensers for all makes and models of dishwasher are available on the eSpares website.